In a traditional macrocellular mobile telecommunication network, large scale base stations are deployed and provide access to mobile telecommunication services in a coverage area served by the base station. A typical macrocellular base station is a substantial installation and includes a tower or other structure on which one or more antennas are mounted, as well as other equipment configured to provide connectivity to a core mobile telecommunications network with which the base station is associated. Careful planning typically goes into selecting the radio frequencies, channels, codes, and other resources that will be used by such a macrocellular base station, and skilled engineers and technicians typically spend many hours building the base station and deploying and configuring associated equipment.
Femtocells and other small scale base stations have been developed to enable mobile telecommunications subscribers to have access to mobile telecommunication service in remote or otherwise unserved or underserved areas and/or to have bandwidth dedicated to their use. In contrast to macrocellular base stations, femtocells and other small scale base stations may be deployed anywhere, and numerous such base stations, each with a relatively very small coverage area, may be deployed, sometimes in areas served concurrently by one or more macrocellular networks. Each femtocell must be configured to connect to, and provide access to mobile telecommunication services via, a mobile telecommunications network, and to be assigned and use RF and other resources that will not result in interference with other elements or other problems.
Mobile telecommunication user equipment, such a cell phones, personal digital assistants, etc., typically are sold through retail locations, often operated by mobile network operators and/or their affiliates or partners. The retail personnel who work at such retail locations typically are trained to demonstrate user equipment features, configure phones for use with the mobile network operator's network, and collect subscriber information necessary to provide service to and obtain payment from the subscriber. Such retail personnel typically do not have the same level of knowledge or skill as the engineers and technicians typically involved in planning for and configuration and deployment of a macrocellular base station.